handcrafted

[Dan Goncharoff]

Over the last five years, one sees "handcrafted" used to promote items
like fragrances, soaps, and teas. I don't think Jonathan exaggerated
the meaning of word in these contexts.

DanG

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 12:27 PM,  <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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> Subject:      Re: handcrafted
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> JL surely exaggerates re: what "handcrafted" means nowadays. Can't one just conclude that the ad he cites is misleading, given that "handcrafted" has to analyze as "crafted by hand" (as dictionaries suggest)?
> ------Original Message------
> From: Jonathan Lighter
> Sender: ADS-L
> To: ADS-L
> ReplyTo: ADS-L
> Subject: [ADS-L] handcrafted
> Sent: Dec 27, 2010 11:58 AM
>
> OED ignores "handcrafted" in the mesmeric commercial sense of "carefully
> made or prepared according to industrial standards."  Celestial Seasonings,
> e.g., claims that its tea blends are "handcrafted."
>
> I suppose in the case of CS, it could mean that somewhere, at some time, a
> "blendmaster" (sic) mixed a little of this and a little of that by hand till
> he liked the taste.  Cool.  However, the usual connotation of "handcrafted"
> is that the very product you're holding was made by hand or with the
> personal attention of a living human to every detail.  Nowadays this is
> rarely the case.
>
> By "nowadays," I mean since the introduction of "handcrafted" to describe
> otherwise routinely manufactured items.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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